Social Resources and Longevity: Findings from the Georgia Centenarian Study

Abstract

Background: As the proportion of adults aged 85 and older increases, investigations of resources essential for adapting to the challenges of aging are required. Objective: To comprehensively investigate the social resources of cognitively intact centenarians participating in the Georgia Centenarian Study and the association between these resources and residence status. Methods: Two widely used measures of social resources were investigated among participants living in private homes, personal care facilities, and nursing homes. Logistic regression was used to determine significant predictors of nursing home residence. Results: Differences in levels of social resources were found between centenarians and octogenarians, and among centenarians in different living situations. Analyses revealed differential findings between self- and proxy reports. Controlling for education, activities of daily living, and financial ability to meet needs, only one of the two social resources measures significantly reduced the odds of nursing home residence. Conclusion: The findings of this study add to the existing literature on one of the basic adaptive resources (social resources) for centenarians. Whether a more specific assessment of network contact is employed, or a more global assessment is used, differences in these constructs exist between centenarians and octogenarians, among centenarians in differing living conditions, and across types of informants. Researchers examining the different resources that may contribute to extraordinary longevity and positive adaptation may find it essential to differentiate between the oldest old and centenarians, and to account for differences based upon measure, reporter type, and centenarian residence status.

Making Sense of Extreme Longevity: Explorations Into the Spiritual Lives of Centenarians

“…Research on centenarians is increasing; to date a considerable amount of existing scholarship seeks to measure and quantify the experiences and situations of centenarians (Hensley, Martin, Margrett, MacDonald, Siegler, & Poon, 2012; Randall, Martin, MacDonald, & Poon, 2010). Few studies qualitatively explore the nature of what it means to older adults to have lived such long lives, and even fewer are existing studies that explore the spiritual lives of centenarians.…”

Editorial

“…Nonetheless, as has been shown for a more heterogeneous sample of older adults, social support is predictive of living in residential aged care [14] . That paper and the one by Randall et al [13] also illustrate the importance of taking a multidimensional approach to assessing social resources.…”

“…The second paper on social resources examines the extent and type of social support received by octogenarians and centenarians, and whether these social resources are predictive of living in residential aged care [13] . Importantly, a number of known risk factors for residential placement are controlled.…”

Age Differences and Changes in Resources Essential to Aging Well: A Comparison of Sexagenarians, Octogenarians, and Centenarians

“…Work on this measure has found low internal consistency reliabilities, ranging from  .44 to  .61 [36]. Randall et al [37] agreed with Burholt and colleagues [36] that these items were not designed to provide maximum internal consistency but rather provide a breadth of assessment and may not even be related. For example, phone conversations may be inversely related to personal visits as one may account for the other.…”